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I received a note from Derek G. Graham OLS OLIP alerting me that I had goofed on the titling of my previous blog post – linked [HERE].

In this post I’m going to own that error more fully than I think even I expect by just letting my fingers serve as the extension of my stream of consciousness.

Obviously, the later representation of the two forms here titled is grammatically proper.

I should probably acknowledge that, change it, and just move onward.

But, I’m going to play with the error a bit to see if I can massage it out. That will probably amount to smearing more tar on myself … but I can take it. So here goes …

Is it possible that my error could actually have been one of punctuation, but not to be corrected by converting “Your” to You’re?”

I’m going to argue that Ali is an external reflection of the best that all of us can be?

All this Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale, and Bob Proctor material that I have been recently studying speaks to the idea of “infinite intelligence” and how we are all tied to one another on a spiritual plane.

Essentially, instead of being material beings which have spiritual experiences, we are all spiritual beings engaged for a brief period of time in a material experience.

I know; this is pretty trippy stuff. These are ideas that few experience and even fewer attempt to explain because it is so far beyond the normal realm of recognition that it can and is considered by most as balderdash.

Ok, good! I’ll try to position these ideas in a way that might be more recognizable to those with a statistics background by considering the bell curve.

As we all know, the bell curve over a normal distribution has a bulge which tops at the center with tails to either side which – at least in theory – asymptotically approach zero.

Now quite some time ago, I had recognized that I tend to be out on not one, but both of the tails as to the way in which I think.

I am and have been a macro thinker all my life. Somehow I am “blessed” with the ability to see the big picture. But, this “blessing” is a curse if not able to share the ideas with others.

So, for the past decade I have gone to the other extreme by going not just to the micro, but rather to the “nano” level of thinking in which I have allowed myself to become an advocate for clients when they and their neighbors get exercised over what I call ‘Five Blades of Grass.’

Ok, so what does all this Macro-Micro thought business have to do with anything?

First, I realized that being able to go out to the statistical tails is the equivalent of being at the “international date line.”

Here, think of that bell curve on a piece of paper that you roll over and to which you tape the “tails.”

Now, if one flips this upside down, a new “center” is created at that “international date line” as identified which is at the top.

The result is a new bell curve and with it a new “average.”

Well guess what? That’s exactly how I feel about myself. I’m just an average guy. Except for one thing. I can meet damn near any person wherever they are.

I am as comfortable with CEOs as I am with the homeless and virtually everyone in between … except KUKD sycophants.

KUKD? That’s the acronym for “Kiss Up Kick Down.” Look around and you will find that there are a heck of a lot of folks who act that way … and for what? An insecure grasp at the next rung of the ladder as best as I can make out.

Now returning to this idea of the person who is out at both tails simultaneously, I was amazed when I saw this phenomenon also described and depicted in Peter Theil’s book Zero to One.

Normally we expect opposite traits to be mutually exclusive: a normal person can’t be both rich and poor at the same time, for instance. But it happens all the time to founders: startup CEOs can be cash poor but millionaires on paper. They may oscillate between sullen jerkiness and appealing charisma. Almost all successful entrepreneurs are simultaneously insiders and outsiders. And when they do succeed, they attract both fame and infamy. When you plot them out [on a normal distribution curve], founders’ traits appear to follow an inverse normal distribution[.] (Emphasis added to text at pages 175-76 [which depicts an inverted bell curve by way of explanation].)

Ok, now I suspect my dear readers to be scratching their head thinking: “What the heck does that have to do with the difference between “your” and “you’re”.

The answer my friends is “manifest” when you look back at the wisdom which Bob Proctor identifies as “infinite wisdom” – aka God.

Regardless as to how you perceive the creator and his-her-it’s creation, we are all a part of it … and to greater or lesser extent we are all recognizably not apart from it. Get it!

In other words, though I wrote “Your the Best.” Perhaps instead, I should have written:

Your “The Best”.

In doing so “Your” becomes interchangeable with “Our.”

Ali, who like all of us wasn’t perfect. But, Ali was the best that he could be and in that we share a piece of humanity with him, he brought out an image of us being the best too … just like MLK.

Now, did I intend “your” error. Of course not. But am I going to just lay down like Sonny Liston. Cheers!

Wow! In light of everything that I have been studying about Napoleon Hill and some other protegees of his this past month or so, I find the above picture and comments extremely interesting.

Perhaps the biggest idea is that one needs to be able to really believe themselves to have already achieved that which it is that they desire.

Essentially, instead of the insidious quip that I have applied to boundary disputes identifying them as “an external manifestation of an internal problem,” this is the positive corollary.

To wit, one who can perceive themselves as having already accomplished a task will create in their mind a way to focus on its achievement and through action will engage in a personal version of “manifest destiny.”

Essentially, Muhammad Ali did exactly this!

Also, I think it extremely fitting to note that Ali was a boxer, but not a fighter. What?

Well, boxing is a contest occurring within the bounds of the specific rules of the ring.

Yes, it’s a slugfest, but due to the cabining by these rules it is legitimate … as (at least in theory) is law.

But, Ali was not a fighter with respect to the Vietnam War for which he was drafted.

The Washington Post [HERE], published Ali’s comments about that “contest” as …

“My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America,” he had explained two years earlier. “And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. … Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail.”

Yes, it should never be forgotten that Ali the greatest boxer was a humanitarian on the same scale … he lent his gravitas to prove the point as to the toxic hypocrisy and downright ecclesiastical vanity of that war. This is what happens when people do become the best that they can be instead of retreating into fear.

Well, it is fitting that Ali’s birthday of January 17, 1942 is so close to when we celebrate MLK.

I think this renaming of the Louisville, Kentucky airport in Ali’s honor is just as fitting as our county’s attribution to MLK.

Ali helped all Americans – certainly not just those of African descent – FLY. Cheers!

Today, Past King County Executive who a decade ago this May took the role of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in DC gave a magnificent speech to open up this year’s MLK weekend.

He shared stories about how growing up he was told by a teacher to tell his parents – who were civil rights protesters – to behave; how his and an Asian American’s extensive science fair projects were denied entry; and how in high school as he was to be recognized as ‘most inspirational’ his coach purposely broke the award in two before handing it to him. Why? Because he was not the same.

He then shared with us the story of how a conservative republican from the east side came to him while a Seattle counselman and said that as a matter of conscious, he wanted to work with Sims to change the attribution of our county to Martin Luther King from what seemed to originally be unknown was a slave owner and slave proponent from Alabama. He mentioned that the aim was never to take away attribution from the later, but only to uphold the former. Isn’t this what we should all do?

Well, I recollected that I had this article in my archives and I brought it along for a visit to my former Rotary club. At the time of publication in May of 2009, both Sims – taking his role at HUD – and our former governor Gary Locke – assuming the role of Ambassador to China* – were apparently a little bit lost in “the other Washington.”

If these gentleman were lost then, I can hardly imagine how ‘dazed and confused’ they would be in the Washington of today.

As Paul Newman’s Cool Hand Luke most certainly exclaim for much less than the government’s furlough: “What we have here is failure to communicate.”

A friend at Rotary sent the above image and asked how I intended to use it. My reply – which I purposely kept unspecified as to addressee for the simple reason that my attempt is to convey a universal message as we kick of this important celebratory weekend – is provided immediately below. Enjoy!

Hi –

I want to breakthrough the boundaries that divide us as people in rebuke of the increasing divisiveness in our neighborhoods, communities, nation, and world. There is just no positive benefit in getting in a kerfuffle over ‘5 Blades of Grass’ and there is always a solution when people are willing to be reasonable. After being at it for now over a decade, I realize that fear of ‘the other’ really amounts to the fear of an unexplored part of one’s own dark and cavernous psyche. Boundary disputes are what I call “an external manifestation of an internal problem.” I just want to show people that it is appropriate to let slide some things because in the grand scheme of things, they – both the things as well as the parties – are insignificant. So, it is our duty to enjoy each other notwithstanding our imperfections. Essentially, I think I have finally been able to grasp the touchstone of all religious traditions – having empathy and love for one’s neighbor and oneself. This is important because our world is now such that we are all neighbors whether willing to recognize it or not. Cheers!

+ BZ/JUSTICE SMILES, pllc

* Correction: Gary Locke was appointed by President Obama as U.S. Commerce Secretary from 2009-2011 and then was Ambassador to China from 2011 – 2014. Locke has currently returned as counsel to DWT and has established his own consultancy.

I had a fantastic day learning Tableau Software as the first customer of Ben Johnson’s Data Literacy.

So much, that I have to confess I need to sleep on it before returning to much of the data that I had organized with the collaborative aid of my graphic designer using brute force.

It’s clear to me that I did allow myself to get far off course by trying to pursue the law in more traditional means instead of staying focused on getting going with Tableau … it’s just so quick and easy.

In that the day was exhausting and I need to think things through further before posting out more thoughts about our learning sprint, I want to post some additional comments about the website immediately below the line.

The above picture is what I get when I look at my handheld from the side.

I’m not keen on the justice smiles face in the brown to the right of the center.

Since the three menu bars are fully responsive to design in that they will shift to the far left regardless if the phone is held in the most common place way of portrait style as opposed to landscape, the menu should be able to be shifted to the right and the logo to the left instead. One would think that the language “Justice Smiles” could reposition so it is always in the middle.

I looked more at this and realized that a “freaky friday” type color scheme switch to have a contrast of background in the shade of light blue and the selected bar in brown ought to look good.

Gosh, I still think the color with the tree band is odd.

I know that thee branches of the tree to the side without more is weird.

I find myself seeking to justify the rest. It’s weird that I should intellectually think it too all be kookie and then find that it is actually fairly peaceful.

Maybe it is perfect as the line between good and evil for this very reason. I need others to help give their opinion … will you?

Though my immediate desire is to get in to Tableau Software so I can learn and earn through an exchange of time and wisdom for value, my approaches haven’t generated my desired outcome … yet!

So, I find myself in the gap between what I thought I was going to be walking away from and meaningful employment.

I find this ironic because it is precisely “the gap” for which I have been fighting others to peacefully close as a boundary dispute attorney.

This has given me pause and cause to reflect on my situation from differing perspectives.

For anyone who has been following along for the last month at home, you will notice that I have ensconced myself in Napoleon Hill’s work Think and Grow Rich.

In addition to this, I have been following his “intellectual grandson” – Bob Proctor who had worked with and for Hill’s protege – Earl Nightingale.

I’ve decided to go through consulting training at the Proctor Gallagher Institute.

As a not incidental aside, I find it of great interest to note that Sandy Gallagher had been a banking and securities attorney for Seattle’s Davis Wright Tremaine before walking away from her practice to work with Proctor. So, I feel myself to be in [a] good company.

But, this still doesn’t speak to what to do in the here and now to provide for my family that which they need and want.

As is my general way, my intention is to integrate differing roles in order to generate what Bob Proctor identifies as the ideal, generating multiple sources of income.

To do this, I realize that it is ideal to follow his overall template to help clients resolve conflict with their neighbor and settle boundary disputes.

I should note that the former – which law has an extremely difficult time getting its mitts on is what I would estimate to be perhaps 90[%] to 95% of the problem leaving only about 5% as real legal work.

The result is a extremely emotionally taxing “legal practice” which involves a scant amount of “legal work” and instead the yeoman’s work is what I have referred to as “psy-opps” – i.e. the war and/or peace of psychological operations in which I have sought to harmonize opposing neighbors’ underlying interests, come to and document the agreed legal solution, and then hope that the spirit of Rodney King blesses the parties whereby they both ask “why can’t we all just get along?” … and then work to make that a reality. Pie in the sky … right?

Well, the insight that came to me was that if clients were willing to put 1/10th of the resources they might otherwise pledge toward a boundary fight into making self-improvement, they would experience “moon-shot” style growth.

With this insight in tact, I am changing everything … mostly for the better.

My intention is to maintain two blogs. This “Boundary Dispute Law [Blog]” and a new one for the purpose of positive paradigm coaching ala the PGI Institute which will have the URL: https://BoundaryBreakthrough.com.

In between and pointing to those blogs will be a website which LexBlog is putting together for me. In fact, I received a proof to this website which I had paused at the end of last year’s Q3.

The above is a screen shot from my handheld and in that I am already generating a blog post, I thought I might offer my 2¢ here and then later send … as I am sure they will not wade through my ramblings to find it here.

Ok, so here goes (below the line).

Setting aside the middle band of color which will need to be reimagined completely, I will want the background colors on the top and bottom bands switched such that blue – and likely a lighter shade – is above in the “sky” and the brown is where we “go to ground.”

I’ll want to have the navigation bars in the upper left (not right) corner for two reasons: (a) as a practical reason it is easier to hit with the index finger of the right hand and (b) this will allow “JUSTICE SMILES” to be centered.

Continuing with respect to “JUSTICE SMILES” and the “J” in “JUSTICE | TRUTH | PEACE” … I will want it sized the same as the rest of the words. Perhaps the “J” in this font naturally pops beyond all the other capitalized letters, in which case greater manipulation is necessary. But, realistically I suspect that this “hook” is currently at a larger font size which simply has to be reduced so to represent like the sentence below.

For that sentence, at present I like the gold color of the language “Justice Smiles”, but will want to see if my sentiment remains when its background is brown. One thing that I do note is that at least on my phone there is language “below the fold”, so …

Let’s try the language from “JUSTICE SMILES IS A LAW FIRM THAT SETTLES REAL PROPERTY BOUNDARY DISPUTES AT A FAIRLY” and leave it at that.

With respect to the logo, all is excellent for the large one, but we have some pixelation issues for the small one. Unless the blue boundary makes the small one represent better, I’m going to need a swap out perhaps with one which has thicker – i.e. bolded – lines, so that it is clear.

That might all be good enough for government work, but I also will want to see how the values under the large image represent after the “J” in “JUSTICE” is adjusted. The ideal would be to have the point of the shield’s “chin” directly above the “U” of “TRUTH”. The second best would be to have the shield’s “chin” “T’eed up” directly above the “T”. However, in that these will probably shift the language too much to the left and right respectively, we might need to just put it over the “R”. I suspect it is because there is some uneven “terrain” below it that it appears off center.

Ok, now returning full circle to the color in the middle. This is supposed to be a nice clear day with green grass below and in the PC version – i.e. here off the screen – there is an oak tree to the left. So, my question is why does this look like a post-apocalyptic fall-out? Well, maybe that’s what people thought I and others felt about the business in the past. But as that famous S.E. Hinton book was titled: “That was then, this is now.” So, let’s get this thing to happy mode because Justice Smiles will actually be able to help people … instead of “assisting” them to be the lesser of two losing parties. Cheers!

Yesterday, I had an informational interview with a gentleman from Tableau Software.

He mentioned how he believes it is so important that we follow the scientific method’s means of determining what you suspect to find – i.e. the hypothesis – and then test for the “null hypothesis.”

In theory it helps people to overcome one of the greatest “weaknesses” of the brain – implicit bias.

Now, I must concur with respect to law land because I find it abject balderdash as to lawyers producing all the “relevant facts.”

Instead, we should probably freely acknowledge that the very act of advocating involves “cherry picking the data” if only unintentional – which as any jaundiced seasoned attorney knows is perhaps the only truth that is absolute in court.

The saving grace of a trial then is that both ideas clash and the judge – though likely not craning their brain – instead cranes their cranium to determine which way the facts appear to shake out most reasonable.

Judges simply apply the law to the facts … right? Wrong again! Remember, judges are also humans subject to their own implicit bias and thus view a matter whatever paradigm with which they view the world.

The best that we can expect to do then is to have a group of people – each with their own implicit biases (though nevertheless undergirded by the overall cultural zeitgeist) to hash things out in order to determine the facts.

This is why we have “juries of our peers.” These fact-finders serve to anchor reasonableness to that which is presented and determine the validity of the “relevant facts.”

Now here’s the question. What happens when the culture becomes warped in its views of people on the peripheria?

At some point a line has to be drawn as to who’s in and who’s out … right?

Well, perhaps it would be most appropriate to be a little – or actually a lot – more generous as to where that line is drawn.

Especially now that technology has allowed us to be anywhere and everywhere throughout the world, perhaps we should really start to explore very carefully our own hearts as to who is our “neighbor.”

I don’t know that a purely scientific approach is appropriate.

What I do know is that the maxim “love your neighbor, as you would yourself” is a lot better than the alternative in which folks project their worst fears upon “the other.”

When the later happens, we are reduced to our very worst form … and that’s not good.

All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind waken the dday to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did. – T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)

This is one of the quotes which Bob Proctor has identified as essential. It is placed on page 45 of his workbook for “The Art of Goal Creation.”

Now, I find this incredibly interesting for a number of reasons. First, apparently like Bob Proctor, I absolutely love Lawrence of Arabia.

It is a movie which stars Peter O’Toole as Sir Lawrence as well as Omar Sharif, perhaps best known for his role in Dr. Zhivago, and Alec Guiness, who starred in both of those movies as well as A Bridge Over the River Quai before taking on the role he is probably best known for throughout the world today as Star Wars’ Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Bob Proctor is basically telling attendees whether they are in the room with people like producer Phillip Goldfine and tech giant Whitney Johnson or outside of the room anywhere else in the world through live stream that we all can realize our dreams … if we only wake up enough to make sure that they come to pass.

Throughout the presentation, he has indicated a number of times in which there have been serendipitous events in his life.

But, he indicates clearly that this is all due to “laws”. Miracles then are events which “[t]he information’s unavailable to the mortal man” – just like Paul Simon’s “Slip Slidin’ Away”.

Except one thing. This isn’t about the tragedy of life as felt from that song, but instead much more like what I find to be Paul Simon’s most happy song – Kodachrome!

Returning to Lawrence of Arabia, I have also had a tie which I have shared with only a few people along the way. But, now I simply don’t care and will let it all out.

There is a scene in which Lawrence has brought two differing tribes across the desert at night. I don’t know recall if these were two factions of differing Bedouin tribes or if there was an even more pronounced difference.

At any rate, someone had fallen off his camel in the night. Everyone else knew he was already extinct. Not, Sir Lawrence! He rode back into the desert and miraculously both found the man and brought him the rest of the way of the journey across to safety.

But in a scene or two there was some sort of an uproar. There was a dispute between the two tribes which created a bind.

See someone from one side was accused of a crime – my memory was of some sort of theft. But, justice had to be meted out.

Yet, the tribe from which the accursed had affiliation simply could not allow the man to be vilified and certainly not to pay for the accused crime … even if as it seemed to be assumed as a fact that it was accurate.

This was a real conundrum because both tribes needed to be united to make an appropriate raid in the morning.

So, Lawrence who had no binding affiliation to either tribe volunteered to adjudicate the dispute.

They through the man accused of the crime at his feet.

Who was he? The man Lawrence had just saved from the desert.

Lawrence shot him. Not once, not twice, reluctantly … which did happen at first. But then he fully emptied his chamber … and then he dropped his gun in horror!

I watch that scene and realize that Lawrence is both disgusted and excited by “the thrill of the kill.”

Now being a boundary dispute attorney does not involve killing people.

But, it does involve “helping” people to make an extreme mental adjustment.

Sometimes that is necessary. In most cases it is not and it is a completely inappropriate strategy.

I never wanted to help people “kill” their neighbor. But, it is so seductively fun to consider … especially when the neighbor is represented to be a complete jackass.

Yet, I can’t help to remember that this is all because of a very simple and solvable legal dispute.

Then, I feel like absolute hell. How can I charge people money to do this type of work.

In most – not all, but certainly most – cases the fight makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I’m either a really great lawyer who cares so much about my clients that I won’t let them get crushed by their neighbor and their own immediate fears, or I am an absolutely horrible attorney who won’t simply go in and gut the neighbor like a fish!

What I have realized is that I am a great diagnostician and I want to bring peace to neighbors.

Because of this I am turning my focus to helping people to get some perspective on the issue … and then to quickly outgrow it.

I think that is adding the greatest value to any client’s life that I can possible give.

If you have a boundary dispute and want an honest attorney to help you think through if you need to take the next step and how to do it, by all means give me a call.

I want to help. I also want you to come up with a victory which is appropriate for both yourself and your neighbor.

In most cases a settlement is the most appropriate, but in others it’s a no holds bar death match.

Know which one your getting into and whether it is something that you are really willing to fight.

I wish you and your neighbors peace … and realize there are two very different paths to get to it.

But in no case should you dream of destroying your neighbor when there is so much other positive things that you can accomplish.

Hire a lawyer to take the burden off your mind or put it out of your mind if you can’t afford the cost.

If you can’t, will you ever be able to have a dangerous dream? You should certainly hope not!

Then of course, there is the quote. This is the essence of the program being put on by Bob Proctor, Sandy Gallagher, et al.

It’s the inner game that is at play and the external environment is just a reflection of the success you are having in that “inner game.”

Now, looking at this from the perspective of boundary dispute law, it makes so much more sense.

I’ve been on to something all along. Why?

Well, because for the longest time, I have realized that whenever there is a conflict between neighbors at least one party and in the worst cases both are experiencing …

“An external manifestation of an internal problem.”

That’s a line I have been saying for years.

So, then as the attorney, I have been charged to take care of a situation that has been at least a decade in the making.

Now, I prefer to sort things out diplomatically if at all possible.

The alternative of litigating against a neighbor for “Five Blades of Grass” has always seemed like that old saying about the Vietnam war:

“We had to destroy the village, to save the village.”

I never felt good about doing that type of work. I didn’t feel that I was making a positive contribution.

The result often would be that I just could not bring myself to putting together the accounting an presenting the bill.

In my mind, the work was unjustifiable.

Well, the reality is that sometimes you do need to stand up against someone who is trying to bully you, but be certain that you can do it if that is going to be your attempt.

Now is that something that I will be able to help you with? The answer is, only in a very limited way.

If you want to have an attorney who really knows this area of law to help you decide if it is even worth considering, I will readily help.

But, I am not going to prosecute cases for people. That’s something in my past now. I’ll refer you to someone who can do the job appropriately.

So, instead of focusing on the legal work of doing boundary dispute law. I am now seeking to help people conduct the work to do boundary breakthroughs.

As someone who has made some transitions in my life before, I look at these three peaks and think.

Oh right, the one on the left is me as a “China Hand”; the one in the middle is me as a “Boundary Dispute Attorney”; and the third one.

One for which I have just recently decided to ascend is helping myself and others to make a “Boundary Breakthrough.”

Wonderfully, I believe that I am going to soon be working for and with the Proctor Gallagher Institute.

There are a lot of signs of serendipity which demonstrate this to me.

The most pronounced is that I received a follow-up message scheduling a morning call tomorrow with the man who I had signed up for this live stream and the Bob Proctor Coaching seminar – Arash Vossoughi.

I think that I was likely his first sale of this year because, I wanted to get to get on board as soon as I could in 2019 and I received a call at 10:00 AM on the first day of business – January 2nd.

Now, when I compare that to the reception that I received recently from another company who didn’t seem to care 2¢ about whether or not I could provide value and I think you can be darn sure which company is the one that I have a higher regard for in my heart.

So far the program has made me realize that I have allowed my head – which is highly self-judgment due to paradigms I gained in childhood – to veto that which my heart demands.

I must say, I have learned a lot as a result. I also probably wouldn’t be as ready to freely take this leap of faith into a realm that seems – at least from a rational POV to be so opaque – but my heart is ready.

I have always wanted to help people. And to be able to use my creativity, my developed intellect- just as lawyer Sandy Gallagher is doing with hers – and my heart to make money at the same time … now that is really a great way to live.

I will never have the time back. I not only lament that, I have deep seated grief. But, I think that somehow it all has come together for this one point in time and space.

If at all possible, I will soon be helping you and others to get a vivid look at their dreams and get on the chase after them.